Sailors Borrow Empty Barracks At Fort Eustis

FORT EUSTIS — The Army has opened its doors to the Navy at Fort Eustis, where more than 190 sailors are bunking in barracks left empty by the national military drawdown.

The sailors make up about half the enlisted crew that has arrived to work on the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding.

The Navy houses many of the sailors assigned to ships at the shipyard in Huntington Hall dormitory downtown. Other sailors live in apartments leased by the Navy around the Peninsula.

The sailors at Fort Eustis are living in a building that used to be part of the base's ``hotel'' system set up to support the temporary needs of the hundreds of Army students attending the U.S. Transportation School each year, said Joseph Treadway, base housing manager.

As the Army becomes smaller, the classes have, too, Treadway said. The Army was faced with having to pay to maintain an empty building when the Navy came along asking for space, he said.

The sailors moved in in mid-April. The Navy reimburses the Army for the cost of such support services as police and fire protection, building maintenance, utilities and custodial services, Treadway said.

In turn, the Navy gets a secure place to put the sailors, who are mostly 18- and 19-year-olds, while the sailors have easier access to on-base benefits such as commissaries, exchanges and physical fitness and recreational activities.``They're part of the family,'' said Treadway.

Navy buses pick up and drop off the sailors every day. At the dormitory-style barracks the sailors have a big-screen television, soda and food vending machines and a pool table in the lobby, as well as cable television, coffee makers, small refrigerators and sometimes a microwave in every two-bed room.

The Navy expects to have 1,100 Stennis sailors arrive by December and may use other housing at Fort Eustis if it becomes available, said Navy Cmdr. Mark O'Hare of the Stennis advance team.